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“Sweet. I’ll go grocery shopping after this. I am thinking about baby back ribs.”
She tilted her head to the side. “A man who cooks. Better than raw masculinity.”
He chuckled. Their mutual teasing became more casual recently. She felt their bond deepened as he let his walls down.
Since finding solutions to salvage Springly, Rick and Charlie discussed the opportunity with the job in England and decided to decline. Rick already wasn’t positive about moving, and their life together was establishing quite nicely. Cultivating their love in their home was more practical than introducing more chaos in an unfamiliar environment. They could revisit the idea in the future; they weren’t too worried about it.
“Go on to the shower and wash off. I’ll have a massage room ready for you,” she told him.
“Will you be massaging me?” he chirped.
“I wish I could, but I’m not trained to handle all those hard muscles. My hands will be sore,” she playfully quipped.
“You could practice.” His lowered voice nearly tickled her skin.
Laughing, she lightly shoved him away. “Darla will be your masseuse. She’s a sturdy, strong lady with the meanest grip strength.”
A grimace smothered Rick’s face, halting their banter. “Is it going to hurt?”
“You’ll live,” she said and sauntered out the door. “Getting back to work. I’ll check on you later.”
She left and gave one staff member instructions to set up Rick’s room. With the day still early, she went back to her office for number crunches. They’d contacted their corporate accountant days earlier and received a suggested financial outline on where they could save. She hadn’t gone through even half of the proposal before Rick and Nick arrived. Aera didn’t want to deal with finances, and instead took an interest in marketing since they had to let go of Jessa.
Her father required a detailed business plan written up before he’d loan his money, and it was an acceptable condition. At least he’d agreed to help. Aera’s father had already wired in the funds for her contribution.
Time passed with her computer screen overtaken by spreadsheets and graphs. Between the information overload and her sore back, she thought to take a break, until an email notification popped with a scathing text from the sender.
Her mother’s lawyer, again.
Fuming, she paused before deciding what to do. What did they want from her now? She’d already signed the documents before, as insulting as it was. After calling her father to inform him what happened, he first advised her to get her lawyer to respond, but Charlie was too fed up to deal with that. So she signed the legal forms to sever the relationship and gained her independence.
How else could they humiliate her more?
She clicked the banner, and the tab expanded to the message.
Subject title:
VOIDED ——— eDoc: KIM / HA LEGAL DOCUMENTS - LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT / DISINHERITANCE
What on earth?
Her eyes devoured the email. She rapidly clicked on the attachments, flipping over the texts like a crazed woman. She glanced through the legal jargon, then stopped to read the main verbiage.
Apparently, Grace canceled her revised will. Charlie got to keep her inheritance. It was as if nothing had happened. But it explained nothing. What did this mean? Did her mother change her mind?
Last Charlie checked, their account was still unchanged, and had expected the funds to be pulled soon. Did Grace have a change of heart? It couldn’t be. She hardly backpedaled when her pride was on the line.
Charlie peeked at her phone, debating with herself. She’d sworn she wouldn’t call her mother; their relationship was done—there was nothing to say. But it would be difficult to go on without an explanation.
Screw it. She picked up the mobile devices and dialed. Questions needed answers.
Three rings later, the line picked up.
“Grace Kim,” her mother answered.
“I got the email from your lawyer. What did you do?” Charlie asked straight away, feeling her heart beating mercilessly. “Is this a trick to get me to call you?”
“I see you’ve lost your sense of civility with that as a greeting,” her mother said sardonically. Typical.
